It's been a while, I know. My life has been really hectic but instead of dwelling on that, let's just get on with the chapter. For everyone who's still sticking with me, thank you! I hope you enjoy this.

I stood in front of the boarding house, feeling lighter than I had in a while. This morning, I'd had a good, long chat with Caroline in which we sorted everything out. I was quitting being co-captain because I was just too busy for it these days—with all the vampire drama, I didn't have the energy for it anymore. But I wasn't quitting the team. Compromise. I was glad I worked things out with Caroline.

"Morning," Damon greeted after I knocked. "You look chipper."

I gave him a smile. "Let go free Katherine."

Something flickered in his eyes, but I couldn't identify what. It was gone too quickly.

"Follow me," he said.

We went up the stairs. Damon silently opened the door and I saw Elena and Stefan lying in his bed post hook-up.

My face scrunched up. "Ew."

"Melanie!" Elena yelled, surprised.

Meanwhile, Stefan glared at his brother. "Damon! What are you doing?"

Damon rolled his eyes as he sat on the edge of Stefan's bed. "Oh, stop being so smutty."

"Seriously, get out of here!" Stefan pulled up the sheets to cover up Elena.

"If I see something I haven't seen before I'll throw a dollar at it," Damon said flippantly.

"Children, please," I said, raising my voice before Stefan could retort. "Let's focus on our task, shall we? We have some important business to discuss."

"And it has to be right now?" Elena asked, annoyed.

"Well, we have a lot to do now that we're all friends and working toward a common goal," Damon said. Elena and Stefan shared a look. Damon continued, not thinking anything of it. "So, in order to open the tomb, we need to get the grimoire to undo the spells. Which means, Gilbert sisters, you're on journal duty."

Elena gave me a strange look. I read her mind.

'You said you didn't want to help?' she thought.

Well, yeah, I had said that. What I really didn't want to do was help Stefan and Elena betray Damon. Because it was monementally stupid, not that they saw that.

"We'll look for it," I said, mostly to Elena.

She nodded slowly. "Yeah, we will."

"What's your deal?" was the first thing Elena asked me once she, I and Stefan were at the Gilbert house.

"There's no deal," I said. "I am helping him get that grimoire."

"Why?" Elena demanded. "How can you be okay with this?"

"I'm telling you, Leen. I have a gut feeling about this. It's better to just help him get the grimoire. If you double-cross him, this is only going to get worse."

"Melanie, listen to me," Stefan said. "Every single time I let my guard down and let Damon back into my life, he's done something to make me regret that. You've yet to learn this, but I won't make that mistake again."

Elena turned to Stefan. "What do you think will happen if he gets the tomb open and he manages to get Katherine back?"

"I think that no matter what Damon promises, a lot of people will die."

"Then why would he promise it?" I countered. "He never claimed not to be a monster. He never claimed to be good. If he's saying now that he doesn't want revenge, I'm inclined to believe him."

"He'll say whatever he has to in order to get that tomb open," Stefan argued. "If you think Damon is bad, Katherine is worse. Neither of them have any regard for human life."

He had enough regard for my life. Enough to take a dozen bullets for me when Logan Fell tried to kill me.

Elena sighed, recognizing my stubborness and that I wouldn't budge from this. "I'm gonna go get one of Dad's boxes, see if the journal's in there."

Elena left.

"You really trust him, don't you," Stefan said. It wasn't a question.

"I trust that he's telling the truth," I said. "Which is more than can be said for you."

"You don't like my methods. I understand. I'm just doing what has to be done," Stefan said, his jaw clenching. I was reminded of Lexi's death—Stefan's best friend. I softened.

"I get that," I said. "Honestly, I do. I just don't think betraying him is the right move here. You think his killing spree will be bad once Katherine's free? I think that when he finds out you lied, there will be consequences."

He shook his head. "Whatever they are, they won't be as bad as Katherine's return."

"And I'm sure that fear of Katherine being back has nothing to do with your relationship with Elena." I lifted a challenging eyebrow.

His green eyes widened, just a little, at the accusation.

Elena returned before he could reply. She placed the box on the kitchen table and opened it.

I heard a new voice enter, Jeremy. "What are you guys doing?"

"Hey. Just going through some stuff," Elena said. "Feeling sentimental. Dad had his old family journal from years ago, thought we'd dig it up."

Recognition flashed on Jeremy's face. "Jonathan Gilbert's journal?"

"Yeah, what do you know about it?" Elena asked.

Jer shrugged. "I did my history report on it."

Elena tried to act inconspicuous. "Oh, so where is it now?"

"I gave it to Mr. Saltzman. He wanted to read it."

Jeremy grabbed a soda from the fridge and left.

"Well, our history teacher is definitely up to something," I said. First that weird interrogation with Damon, and now he had the very journal that would reveal the location of the mystical spellbook.

"I'm gonna go check out this teacher, pay him a visit," Stefan said. He shared a kiss with Elena before leaving.

I caught up on homework I'd missed until I grew tired of it. I went downstairs to get something to eat, which was when I heard voices coming from the kitchen.

"Hello, Melanie."

Damon was in my kitchen. Cooking. I blinked several times, but the sight before me did not go away.

I looked from Jenna to Damon, wondering how long he'd been here.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded.

"I'm here to see you, of course," he answered. Jenna gave me a look that clearly said 'isn't he charming?'. I glared at her, then at Damon.

"I don't recall inviting you," I said.

"It's called a surprise, Melanie," he said, rolling his eyes before sharing a comisserating look with Jenna. Oh no, I did not like this. These two were not allowed to be friendly, for the sake of my sanity.

"You look pretty today, Melanie," Jenna said. "Don't you think so, Damon?"

"Oh, yes. Very." The amusement in his voice was hard to miss.

To my mortification, I felt a flush creeping up my face.

"Jenna," I said through gritted teeth. "Do you hear that?"

She frowned, confused. "I don't hear anything."

"Exactly. Peaceful, isn't it?"

She smiled conspiratorially. "Ah, of course. I got it. I'll leave you two alone."

I glared at her the whole time while she left. She began to play video games with Jeremy in the living room.

"Your aunt is quite the matchmaker," Damon said. I turned around so I faced him again.

"You're not the only one she's trying to set me up with, so don't go thinking you're special."

"You wound me, Mel," he told me with a faux hurt expression. "Who is the lucky guy?"

"Tyler." I rolled my eyes. "You dance with your ex one time and you never hear the end of it."

"So that's who you were dancing with last night," he said. "You know, I'm starting to piece it together. He cheated on you with Vicki, didn't he?"

My eyes widened as I remembered that I'd told him about that, back when Vicki and I were being held hostage.

"Why do you remember that?" I complained.

"I've a very good memory," he told me smugly.

I scoffed. "Yeah, right. I bet you don't remember anything from when you were human, besides the Katherine parts. You've been alive for way too many years, you've gotta have, like. Vampire amnesia. Is that a thing? I feel like it's a thing."

"It's not a thing," he told me, amused.

"Prove it, Salvatore."

He let out a laugh. "Fine."

"I'm waiting." I lifted an eyebrow when he didn't add anything.

He seemed to consider it, before settling on an answer. "My father ordered me to join the Confederate Army. I didn't want to disappoint him, so I did."

My eyebrows skyrocketed. Not exactly something anyone would want to broadcast, so I wondered why he was telling me. "Oh?"

"I ended up deserting," he continued. "Never agreed with the cause and I hated fighting for it."

I didn't quite know what to say, so I just nodded. He didn't say anything, either. Just looked at me.

I turned away and went to set the table, for an excuse to have something to do. I cleared my throat. "Alright. I take it back. No vampire amnesia for you."

"Why, thank you, Doc," he teased.

While I was setting the table Damon 'accidentily' bumped into me.

I gave him a look. "Stop it."

"Stop what? I was just trying to get to the sink." He blinked at me oh-so-innocently.

"Sure you were," I told him.

"So, where are our siblings? They're missing family night, which I am enjoying immensely," he said.

I leaned over the stove to smell the food, which smelled amazing. Ugh. Of course it did.

"They'll be here," I said.

Damon grew more serious. "Is it real?"

"Is what real?" I asked, confused.

"This renewed sense of brotherhood. Can I trust him?"

Oh, dear god.

"He's your brother," I said, trying to avoid answering. I wanted to help Damon get the grimoire, but I wasn't exactly eager to tell him my sister was planning on betraying him. I was scared how he'd react.

"That's not what I asked." Damon looked away. "You know, there was a time when I trusted him more than anyone."

Curious, I asked, "What changed?"

"He told our father that Katherine was a vampire, after I made him promise not to. Stefan thought he'd understand." He gave a brittle smile. "He didn't."

"Oh," I said softly. He held my gaze.

"I just want her back. Surely you can understand that."

"If I could bring back my parents, I'd do it in a hearbeat," I admitted.

He took a step forward, lowering his voice. "Then you understand what I will do if anyone gets in my way."

I shivered.

He turned his attention back to dinner. I focused on my breathing, trying to keep it and my heartbeat steady so he wouldn't know that something was up.

We were so screwed.

I grabbed my phone.

Melanie: Call off your idiotic plan!

Elena: We've talked about this.

Melanie: He's going to kill you!

Elena: I can't risk the town getting hurt.

Melanie: And I can't risk YOU getting hurt, did you ever think about that?

Elena: I'm sorry. This is how it has to be.

Elena went offline and stopped replying to me. A sense of foreboding grew.

After dinner, Jeremy and Damon were playing video games.

"You said you've never played this thing before," Jeremy complained as Damon was winning.

"I'm a fast learner. Quick reflexes," Damon said. Jeremy's phone went off and he paused the game before taking his phone out and ignoring it. "Who are you dodging?"

Jeremy unpaused the game. "This girl, Anna, she can be persistent."

This was the first I heard about it. Was Jeremy moving on? I felt conflicted as I thought about Vicki. Moving on was a good thing considering Vicki's death, but Jer didn't have all the facts. I had made sure of that.

"Is she hot?" Damon asked because of course he did.

"Yeah, but she can be weird."

"Hot trumps weird…" Damon's gaze found me. He smirked. "Trust me."

I gaped at him. Rude!

"Mel, you're killing me here," Jenna said, snapping my attention away from Jeremy and Damon. "Are you dating him or not?"

"Not! Definitely not." I told her sternly, "So you can stop it with the embarassing aunt matchmaking, because it's never gonna happen."

Jenna leaned in closer and lowered her voice. "He is ridiculously hot!"

I shushed her, not that it really mattered. Damon was no doubt listening in on this conversation with his super hearing.

"He is ridiculously annoying, is what he is." I didn't know what spurred me to add: "And unavailable. That, too."

"Girlfriend?" Jenna prompted.

I didn't know what had posessed me to bring up Katherine. It took me a while to reply. "Yeah, this girl called Katherine. They've been together a long time. …Well."

Jenna noticed my hesitation and pounced on it. "Well, what?"

"They've been seperated for a long time," I said. "They're trying to be finally reunited."

I watched the back of Damon's head. He was giving no indication that he was hearing our conversation, but I knew he was.

"If they've been separated for a long time, that means they've both changed since they last saw each other," Jenna said. "They aren't the same people they were as when they fell in love. I doubt it'll work out."

"You don't know them," I said, feeling weirdly defensive. "Maybe it will."

Jenna lifted an eyebrow. "You want it to work out?"

No.

That was the first thought that popped up in my head, and it shocked me. No, I didn't want it to work out. Jenna's words gave me hope that maybe it wouldn't.

This was ridiculous.

"Yes," I said firmly. "I hope they'll be happy together."

The doorbell rang. I went to get it, glad for the excuse to leave. Damon followed.

Stefan and Elena told us about someone taking the journal from Alaric before they got there. Damon asked who else wanted the journal. The answer to that, apparently, was Jeremy.

"Leave Jeremy out of this," Elena warned.

"What's the big deal?" Damon asked, looking over at Jeremy. "I'm just going to ask him, nicely."

"Nicely?" I scoffed. "That's not in your vocabulary. Let me talk to him."

I was already thrumming with anxiety over Damon possibly hurting Elena when he found out about her stupid plan. No need to add Jeremy into the mix.

"Melanie—"

"The Gilbert sisters were on journal duty, remember?" I cut Damon off. "I'll talk to him."

Damon rolled his eyes but gestured for me to go first. I gave him a small smile.

I went to sit next to Jeremy. He didn't say anything, too invested in his game.

"Wow," I said. "You're so good at this game."

Jeremy asked, his voice filled with suspicion, "Do you need money?"

"What?" I exclaimed. "Can I not just compliment my brother anymore without having ulterior motives? Unrelated question, what did you do with the old journal?"

Jeremy's attention was dedicated solely to his game. I got nothing from him except a grunt.

Damon rolled his eyes, his patience clearly up. He moved to sit on the other side of Jeremy. "Who else did you show the journal to?"

"Huh?"

"Don't ask questions, just spill," Damon said, a bit of an edge in his voice. My anxiety increased.

"Did you show anyone else apart from Mr. Saltzman?" Elena asked, approaching us.

"Why is everybody so obsessed with that thing?" Jeremy asked, frustrated.

"Who else did you tell?" she pressed.

"Just that girl, Anna," Jeremy finally answered. He turned to Damon. "The hot one."

"The weird one?" Damon responded.

"Yeah."

"Who's Anna?" Stefan asked.

I looked at Jeremy. "How do you know her?"

"I just know her," Jeremy said. "She wants me to meet her at the Grill tonight."

"Perfect, I'll drive," Damon said, standing up.

I stood up, too. "I'll come with."

Jeremy turned back to the TV. "I have to finish my game first."

"How long will that take?" Damon asked.

"I don't know. Half an hour, maybe?"

Damon grabbed the controller and was shot dead within seconds. "Oh well, you lose, game over. Let's go." Damon threw the controller and it landed on the couch.

I stifled a laugh at Jeremy's gobsmacked expression.

"Why would you do that?"

I patted his shoulder. "There, there."

We arrived at the Grill. Jeremy immediately walked off to look for Anna. Damon and I went to sit at a table.

"While we're here, maybe we could grab a cheeseburger for me," I said. I hadn't eaten a lot during dinner, too anxious about Stefan and Elena's plan and the inevitable fallout.

Damon frowned at me. "We're pursuing a witch's spellbook that will open a tomb and you're thinking about food?"

"Says the blood addict."

"Honey, you're confusing me with Stefan," he told me with a wry smile.

"Don't call me that," I snapped, flustered and trying not to show it.

"Must you shoot down all my nicknames?" he said, longsuffering. "They're my thing."

"Being annoying is your thing," I retorted.

"Now you're confusing me with yourself," he said cheekily.

Where was a stake when you needed one?

Suddenly, Damon lifted his head, turning it to the side. I followed his gaze to a girl talking with Jeremy. That had to be Anna. She hadn't noticed us, too focused on Jeremy.

"What?" I asked. "What's wrong?"

He didn't answer. He just left. I followed, not appreciating being ignored.

"Hello? What's—"

He turned around and shushed me, before walking out the door. Stunned, I followed.

"What is going on?" I asked, walking fast to keep his pace. He seemed to be deep in thought, as if he didn't believe something. For about the thousandth time I rued the fact that mind reading didn't work on vampires.

"I know her," he said finally. "Anna. She was alive in 1864."

My eyes widened. I turned around to go back to the Grill, but Damon grabbed my arm.

"Let go," I said, my voice trembling.

He didn't.

"Jeremy will be fine," he said, accurately reading my worry. "If you confront Anna right now, you won't be."

"So then what is the plan?" I wrenched my arm free and this time he let me.

"We're going to go back and pretend like nothing is wrong. We'll wait for Anna to leave. And then I'll pay her a visit."

He said all of this so calmly, it had a soothing effect on me.

Some of the tension in me bled away. I nodded. "Okay."

After Anna left and Damon went after her, Jeremy and I went home. When we arrived, Stefan and Elena were walking out of the house.

"Where are you going?" I asked, noticing a stack of paper in Stefan's hand. Jeremy ignored us and walked inside.

"Just out," Elena said vaguely. "We'll be home later."

I read her mind. The stack of paper in Stefan's hand was a copy of the Gilbert journal. They knew where the grimoire was and they were going to get it without Damon and without me.

"You want to try that again?" I lifted an eyebrow. "The part where you thought you could lie to a mind reader?"

I glanced at Stefan. He didn't seem surprised. I was assuming Elena had told him everything about me, then.

"Well, maybe that's the problem," Elena snapped. "You reading minds whenever you want. Did you ever even try to consider people's privacy first before you invaded it?"

My temper rose. "That's real rich coming from the girl dating someone who can control minds!"

"Stefan doesn't do that!"

Stefan was starting to look uncomfortable, but Elena and I didn't particularly care in that moment.

"Oh, please! He's done it! But you know what, yeah, you're right. Privacy above all. That's why we erased Jer's memories, too, isn't it?"

"I don't have time for this." Elena threw up her hands. "We are getting that grimoire."

"You are signing your death sentence," I snapped, infuriated. Why couldn't she see it?

"Melanie…" Stefan said, before he hesitated. I turned my rage on him.

"You go right ahead," I told him. "Betray your brother. You better hope that you were right, earlier. You better hope that the consequences of it aren't as bad as your fear of Katherine."

I stormed away.

I went to the bathroom and when I returned to my room, Damon was there.

I swallowed. "Did you talk to Anna?"

Damon held up the journal as his answer. "Look what I got."

I forced a smile. "Great. Good for you."

He frowned. "Aren't you coming?"

"I…" I couldn't meet his eyes. I took a shuddering breath.

He shook his head a little, confused. "What's wrong?"

I looked him in the eye. "Please don't be mad."

His entire stance went rigid. "What did you do?"

His tone was low and threatening. He'd clearly been anticipating a betrayal, but there was something unexpected in his eyes. Hurt. Hurt that I put there.

"I didn't do anything," I defended hotly.

"But my brother did," Damon filled in the blank. "Elena, too. Otherwise you wouldn't be so scared right now."

"Please don't hurt her," I pleaded. "She's just… I… Please. Let's just go get the grimoire, okay?"

He looked at me for a long while. His expression reminded me of a bomb that would go off soon.

"Fine," he said, voice clipped. "My father has it. Shall we?"

"Your father?" It dawned on me. If his dead father had it, that meant it was buried with him.

I went with him. The drive was in tense silence. We got out of the car and walked the rest of the way.

"It shouldn't be far from here," Damon said, finally breaking the silence.

"Okay. Good." I nodded, trying to seem more optimistic than I felt. I hesitated. "Elena was just doing what she thinks is right."

"And Stefan? Will you defend him, too?" His tone was oddly emotionless.

"You deal with your sibling, but leave mine alone."

He gave a humorless laugh. "Is that a threat?"

"It's a request," I said, "from a friend."

He blinked at me. I'd never referred to him as a friend before.

All of a sudden, Damon grabbed my arm and sped us over to where two people were standing. I squinted while my eyes adjusted. It was Stefan and Elena. An open book lay on the ground. That had to be the grimoire.

"Well, what do you know?" Damon asked coldly, catching their attention. "This is an interesting turn of events."

"I can't let you bring her back," Stefan said simply. "I'm sorry."

"So am I," Damon said. "For thinking for even a second that I could trust you."

The bomb had reached its countdown. There was nowhere to go to brace for impact, but I braced myself for what was to come nonetheless.

"Oh, you're not capable of trust," Stefan said, scoffing. "The fact that you're here means that you read the journal and you were planning on doing this yourself."

"I'm not here alone, Stefan," he said, his gaze flickering to me before finding Stefan again. "Because, apparently, aside from her, the only one I can count on is me. You made sure of that many years ago. So what are you going to do now? Because if you try and destroy that…" Damon suddenly grabbed me. "I'll rip her heart out."

My eyes widened and my heart began to pound.

"Damon, no!" Elena cried out. Stefan held her back from running to me.

"You won't kill her," Stefan said confidently.

"I can kill whoever I want," Damon said, his grip on me tightening.

I listened to their conversation, feeling oddly faraway. Like I was watching a movie and I wasn't really here.

"Look at her, Damon," Stefan said.

There was a moment of tense silence before I was flipped around. Damon's expression was cold and pragmatic and I knew he was capable of anything. He would do anything, just to get Katherine back.

There was nothing I could say that would change that. I wanted to look away, but I still felt as if I was just a spectator. I kept looking him in the eye, and I saw his eyes soften, just a little. I wondered what it meant.

"I can do one better," Damon said before he bit his wrist. He shoved his wound into my mouth. Blood trickled down my throat.

All at once, I was back in the moment, no longer a spectator. This was real. My pounding heart, Damon's firm grip, the taste of blood on my tongue.

"Stop it, Damon!" Elena shrieked.

"Give me the book, Stefan, or I'm snapping her neck," Damon said, spinning me around to face Stefan and Elena.

My vision blurred. I didn't want to be a vampire. I didn't want uncontrollable bloodlust and eternal life and everything magnified. I didn't want this. Tears spilled down my cheeks.

"Let her go first," Stefan said.

"The book!" Damon said, becoming angrier.

"I'm not going to give this to you until she is standing next to me."

"Problem is, I no longer trust that you'll give it back!"

"You just did the one thing that ensures that I will."

Stefan slowly placed the book on the ground and Damon watched intensely as he did so.

Damon turned his head to me, burying his nose in my hair and inhaling. His grip loosened. I took a few steps forward as his hands slipped away completely.

Elena pulled me to her and she held me tightly.

I looked over my shoulder. Damon watched me, expression unreadable. Anger rose in my chest as I looked at him, so I turned my attention back to Elena.

"I'm sorry," Elena was saying, mildly hysterical. "I'm so sorry for our fight earlier, and, I love you, and—"

"Shh," I said. "It's okay."

None of this was okay.

Elena let out a laugh, but it sounded really close to a sob. "Shouldn't I be the one telling you that?"

Stefan's arms wrapped around me and Elena, clearly intending to guide us away.

I wrenched myself away from Elena and took a giant step away from Stefan.

"Mel?" Elena asked me, confused.

"Was it worth it?" I asked Stefan.

He remained silent.

"You said that whatever consequences there would be for betraying your brother, it wouldn't be as bad as Katherine's return. If he killed me, if I die tonight and I have to live forever as a vampire." My voice rose. "Was it worth it?"

Stefan looked deeply sad. "I'm sorry, Melanie."

"Screw you," I spat. "I told you. I told you, you should have just helped Damon get the grimoire. Now he has it anyway. Your little plan was all for nothing."

We went to the car in silence.

I was awoken by someone shouting Elena's name. It was Stefan's voice.

I got out of bed and went to my sister's room. Elena was missing, and panic was clear on Stefan's face.

"What happened?" I asked, my stomach dropping.

"Anna. She took Elena." He looked at me. "Elena's gone."